Dead Souls
by KetaPhex
Summary: 6 teenagers get lost on their way home and stumble across the Himuro Mansion... - PLEASE SEE PROFILE INFO
1. Chapter 1

In the UK, Fatal Frame is known as Project Zero but I'm sure everything else about it is the same. This fic probably contains millions of spoilers, especially later on, so I strongly suggest you play the game first! (Go on, its awesome hehe) Anyways, there is a slight bit of Shounen ai later on (boy x boy stuff) but nothing explicit so don't worry! This fic is actually a really old one I wrote a long time ago and I recently found the disk hanging around in my room, so I decided to finish it off! Anyways, enjoy ^_^  
  
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Akemi was thinking, which wasn't all that unusual for her. She was always thinking about something or other at random times, such as 'why don't cute guitarists from my-best-friends-brothers-band fancy me as much as I do them?' She was referring to Eien of course, the guitarist from Peroxide Blue, who she had liked since they were about eleven. But right now, she was thinking about how dark it was, and how the brightness of the full moon allowed her to see everything around the van and outside it. They had been driving for hours, on the way home from Peroxide Blue's latest gig. Rika, Akemi's best friend, was sitting in the shotgun seat arguing with her brother Reijiro as usual, While Akemi was crammed into the back of the van with Kaii, Isamu, Eien and hoards of guitars, drums and various other bits of band paraphernalia. It wasn't such a bad thing being in there with Eien of course, but he had fallen asleep a long time ago and now the only other one awake besides the squabbling siblings in the front was Kaii, the bassist.  
  
She turned to Kaii, who was fiddling with the strings on his bass and trying to tune it in as best he could while Reijiro had music screaming out from the stereo. Kaii smiled at her and put the guitar down.  
  
"You okay?" he asked her politely. She nodded and smiled back. Kaii was a really nice guy, always there to offer a compassionate, caring shoulder to cry on. He glanced out of the window onto the road and watched vaguely as the trees sped past. There were no other cars out this late, so Reijiro had taken the opportunity to drive as fast as humanly possible on the rocky, uneven road, which wasn't really that fast since even he, reckless though he could be, understood what it was to be a good driver.  
  
"Christ, it's dark....", Kaii commented, and Akemi agreed. The night seemed to have fallen insanely quickly, and the rain had started up. For now it was just spitting, but it was doubtless that a full on, raging thunderstorm would probably hit within the hour. In the front, the twins and stopped arguing long enough for Rika to turn around and inspect the group in the back.  
  
"Hey, Akemi?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"What time are your parents expecting you back?" Akemi looked at her watch and groaned.  
  
"In about half an hour", she replied, sounding a little worried.  
  
"Really? Oh shit, you might want to ring them and tell them you're gonna be a little bit late", Rika said,"were nowhere near the town yet, tell them we had engine trouble or something okay?"  
  
Akemi nodded and took Kaii's cell phone when he offered it to her. She punched in the number and swore when the familiar recording answered telling her that she was out of the service range. She handed Kaii's phone back and leaned heavily on the back of her seat, muttering to herself about the incompetence of service providers and wondering if she was going to get grounded or just have her allowance cut again. It wasn't as though she made a habit out of coming home late; it was just unavoidable most of the time. Tonight, the gig hadn't actually finished until 11.30, and the drive home was at least an hour long. 'So much for being home for 12.30' she thought. Her Dad would probably buy the engine trouble story, and it wasn't uncommon for the cell phone service to be crap in the hills, but her Mum would be less than impressed.  
  
The van carried on down the road for a while longer until it hit a pothole in the road and bounced violently on its suspension, waking both Isamu and Eien up.  
  
"Christ, sorry guys!" Reijiro called from the front. The van had come to a total standstill, and refused point blank to fire up again. Reijiro swore and slammed his fist onto the dashboard, making Rika's coke can topple off and pour all over her pink summer dress.  
  
"Reijiro!!!!" she screeched  
  
"Sorry, my bad", he answered. He climbed out of the van and lifted its hood for inspection. Kaii, Eien and Isamu went to help, leaving the girls in the van. They stood for a while, poking around inside the hood and discussing technical jargon that neither Rika nor Akemi understood a word of. Rika tried the ignition when Kaii signalled to her, but nothing came of it. Rika turned back to Akemi again.  
  
"So", she said, grinning childishly,"still have a thing for Eien?" Akemi blushed and attempted to hide behind her glossy black hair, making Rika laugh.  
  
"Haven't you told him yet?" she asked.  
  
"Hell no!" Akemi answered "as if! I don't think he likes me anyway". Rika shrugged in a 'well-you-will-never-know-if-you-don't-try' way, and Akemi gave her the finger, in a friendly way if such a thing was possible. Rika grinned and tried the ignition again for Kaii, which still didn't work. Bored with sitting in the van, she got out to join the others, and Akemi followed her. Eien was trying to get a signal on his phone while Kaii and Reijiro inspected the vans under carriage. Eventually, Eien gave in with the phone and turned to the others for a suggestion.  
  
"Do you think anyone lives around here?" Isamu asked no one in particular "because we could use a land line to call for help or something...." Eien looked around.  
  
"Wait, there's a point, where are we exactly?" Isamu shrugged and pointed to Reijiro.  
  
"Ask him, he's the one who got us out here". Reijiro turned and tried to look innocent.  
  
"Don't blame me!" he protested "Rika was the one reading the map! She got us lost!" Rika started to protest herself but was cut off by Akemi stepping in to break up the potential argument.  
  
"Either way" she said "We need to try and find a house, we need to call someone from a landline since the service up here sucks, I'm going to go back up the road a bit and check out that side road we passed before, okay?"  
  
She started off, and was pulled back by Eien. The faintest flicker of scarlet embarrassment flashed across her face.  
  
"You're not going anywhere alone, Akemi" Reijiro said.  
  
"Yeah" Kaii agreed, "We're all going to go, safety in numbers and all the rest of it. You don't know if anybody living up here is safe to be talking to, especially in the middle of the night." She nodded, and Eien let go of her arm, although she would have been perfectly happy to have him hold onto it all night if he had wanted. The boys pushed the van into the trees a little way so it was out of sight from the road and Reijiro locked it up. Rika pulled her jacket over her shoulders and huddled close to Akemi for warmth. The wet patch where the coke had spilled on her was bad enough, but the rain, which had grown heavier now, wasn't exactly helping any. The girls walked with Reijiro and Isamu in front, Kaii and Eien behind up the uneven road, getting drenched in the rain and feeling thoroughly miserable. Isamu looked up and spotted what appeared to be a driveway leading a little way up the hill to a house.  
  
Akemi sighed thankfully and they trudged up the soggy dirt path to the doors. The house was huge, more like a mansion and appeared quite run down. The old wooden doors were rotting away and looked like they hadn't been opened in years. It was as foreboding as it gets. The mansion looked so old, Akemi wondered if the floors were even safe to walk on.  
  
"Open it" Kaii whispered to Reijiro.  
  
"What?! Hell no, you open it!!"  
  
"Bugger off I'm not going anywhere near it!"  
  
"Oh for Christ's sake...." Eien mumbled, pushing past them and easing the door open just in case it disintegrated at his touch. The old, rusted hinges creaked eerily and dust fell from them. Eien stepped into the dry room first, followed by Kaii and Reijiro then the others. Isamu twisted his long hair to wring the water from it, and Kaii panicked incase the rain had caused his bright blue hair dye to run. Eien left his hair as it was, wet and straggly, which Akemi couldn't help but think made him look incredibly hot. Rika looked like a drowned rat with her hair stuck to her face, and everyone felt thoroughly miserable.  
  
"This place must be damn old...." Reijiro commented, looking pointedly at the huge hole in the floor where a ceiling beam appeared to have crashed through the wood. Akemi shivered, and blushed again when Eien put his jacket around her shoulders, which despite the rain outside was quite dry inside.  
  
"Hello?" Kaii called "anyone home?" There was no reply to Kaii's call.  
  
"I guess no one's home then! Oh well, maybe we should try somewhere else!" Rika said, turning back to the door happily.  
  
"Oh no you don't" Isamu said "were staying here until someone gets home if we have to, besides this place is huge, maybe they didn't hear us". Rika frowned and looked back to the hole in the floor.  
  
"Judging by that" she said "I'd say no one's home and no one has been home for quite a while". Isamu shrugged.  
  
"I'd rather be in here than out in that crappy weather, and I think the others agree, right guys?" They all nodded.  
  
"You never know Rika" Akemi said brightly, maybe they're fixing the place up and haven't got around to doing that yet."  
  
"Somehow, I doubt that...." she replied.  
  
They left the room through a door at the side, into a dark hall.  
  
"Why on Earth are there ropes hanging from the rafters?" Kaii mumbled to Reijiro. Reijiro shrugged and advanced down the hall, moving the ropes of the way as he did. The old floorboards creaked and groaned with every step the group took, and Akemi groped in the darkness for Rika's hand. They moved silently to the hall's end, where two doors led off on either side.  
  
"Oh, bloody marvellous", Isamu groaned. Reijiro laughed nervously and pointed to one door.  
  
"Safety" he said, then pointed at the other and said "certain death". The others joined his nervous laughter and grouped more tightly together.  
  
"I'll take door number one" Isamu said, "anyone agree?" Kaii nodded, as did Reijiro and Rika. Akemi and Eien didn't answer.  
  
"I don't like this" Eien said glancing at the doors, then into the mirror on the wall "something doesn't feel right...."  
  
"Thanks for lifting to mood...." Kaii said sarcastically.  
  
"Actually" Rika piped up "I agree with him, something isn't quite right here...." Akemi squeezed Rika's hand. The atmosphere in the building was beyond eerie and border-lining petrifying. The whole place was unnaturally silent; no one beside themselves could possibly be in here. There wasn't even the feeling that the people of the house where upstairs in bed.... and yet the house didn't feel empty.  
  
"How about we leave?" Isamu suggested, "there's no one here but us and this place is putting the shits up me".  
  
"I'm good with that," Kaii said.  
  
"We can't leave!" Reijiro protested, "there has to be a phone in here or something, everyone has a phone!" The others agreed after some convincing, and it was finally decided that Akemi, Eien and Isamu would go through one door while Reijiro, Rika and Kaii went through the other and that they were all to meet back in the hall within one hour. Isamu pushed their allocated door open, and it practically fell of its hinges straight away. Isamu jumped back into Akemi who yelped a little louder than she had intended. The group froze again, and then laughed it off nervously before finally separating.  
  
Isamu entered the room first, which appeared fairly empty. There were a few dust-shrouded cabinets around and what looked like antique plates. The room was so dusty, in fact, that they were leaving footprints as they moved through it. Akemi, who had a slight allergy to dust, sneezed six times in a row when Eien opened one of the cabinet's drawers. Inside was an old, yellowing newspaper. Eien took it out and read the headline aloud.  
  
"Himuro Mansion family move out, daughter distraught".  
  
"Himuro Mansion, is that the name of this place?" Akemi asked.  
  
"I think so, this picture looks just like it, only in a much better condition. Apparently the last family to live here moved out because their daughter was traumatised by people 'talking' to her, people only she could see". Eien turned around to Isamu to find him inspecting the wooden wall closely. He was looking through a small crack into the next room, and was totally fixated.  
  
"Isamu?" Eien called.  
  
"Eien, I think there's someone in there..." he replied with a whisper, as though he didn't want to be heard. Eien approached the wall and Isamu made room for him to look too. The room looked like it was full of Japanese porcelain dolls, and besides a few burned out lanterns and a faded green cushion on the tatami mats, there was nothing else in there.  
  
Eien straightened up.  
  
"I think you may be seeing things Isamu", he said quietly, almost pitifully.  
  
"What? No way! There was a girl in there! A little girl in a white kimono! She was sat right there by that cabinet!" Isamu explained, doing his best to defend himself.  
  
"Well, maybe it was just a shadow?" Akemi suggested hopefully, although something had just sent a shiver down her spine. Isamu snorted and flicked his long hair back.  
  
"Sure, maybe it was only a shadow, but it sure as hell looked like a little girl was sitting there looking at me..."  
  
"Eien?" Akemi asked, tugging gently on his sleeve "can we leave now?"  
  
"Sure Akemi, Isamu were going to look somewhere else now okay?" Isamu turned around and looked at them, then nodded. They started up the small flight of rickety stairs in the corner of the room and reached the landing looking down on the room they had just been in. Akemi tried the door at the top of the stairs, and with some help from Eien, managed to push it open.  
  
"That was bizarre", she said when they stepped through "it was like someone was holding the door shut".  
  
"Probably the hinges or something", Eien suggested, "they look a little rusted". Isamu followed them through the door, walking backwards and still staring down at the tiny hole in the wall. The new room appeared to be some kind of observatory. Akemi rolled the Shoji screens at the end of the room open to find a balcony overlooking the garden. She looked down upon the cherry tree in the centre of it, and suddenly became very cold. She stared hard at the tree, and a shape came into form. She clapped a hand to her mouth in shock.  
  
"Eien!! Isamu!!" she called to the boys "Look!" They came running out onto the balcony and followed the direction in which Akemi was pointing. From the branches of the ancient cherry tree, a woman was hanging on a rope by her neck. Her eyes were half closed and her mouth twisted as though she had tried to take in one last struggles breath before her end. Her kimono hung loosely about her body, and looked old and faded, like it had been worn many times for many years. Her body was swinging gently on the rope, and it turned so her face has directly staring at the balcony in a glazed sort of way. Eien took in a sharp breath and grabbed Akemi's hand and Isamu's sleeve.  
  
"Let's go, okay?" he whispered, gently pulling them backwards back into the observatory, unable to take his eyes off the woman, until she suddenly vanished. They stood rooted to the spot in fear, huddled close together. Akemi felt the boys trembling behind her, and realised she was shaking herself. She rolled the screens shut quickly.  
  
"Trick of the light?" she asked hopefully.  
  
"Must have been", Isamu answered her "something like that anyway."  
  
"She looked so real...." Eien whispered.  
  
"Yeah.... but I think we should get moving now, anyone agree?" Isamu said, nervously. Akemi nodded and started over to another door at the side of the room. She pushed it open and looked into the murky corridor beyond.  
  
"Hello?" she called, not entirely surprised when no one answered her. She stepped through first, followed by Isamu the Eien. She called out again for good measure and was satisfied that no one besides them was around. Some steps led down from the walkway they were on, so they took them down into another corridor. It was darker down here, but typical techno junkie Isamu had his trusty miniature flashlight in his back pocket. He took it out and flicked it on. The circle of yellow light swallowed the corridor, revealing that it turned corners at both ends and the walls were streaked with dark red lines.  
  
Isamu stepped up to the wall to inspect it closer, the small group already knowing what the lines were.  
  
"Blood..." he mumbled. Akemi absent-mindedly stepped closer to Eien and, without realising it, clasped his hand. He made no effort to shake her off, instead he squeezed it reassuringly. She felt a flutter in her heart that unfortunately quickly dispersed when she noticed that Isamu had turned the flashlight to the far end of the hall, his breathing sounded shaky like something had just terrified him.  
  
"Something..." he said, sounding like his throat was as dry as a desert in peak summertime "down there..." They followed the line of light and stared at the wall where the corner began. A sound, like footsteps, was growing steadily more distant. It didn't take a genius to work out that someone was walking down the corridor away from them. Eien started cautiously towards the sound of the footsteps and nervously peeked around the corner. A man was walking slowly down the corridor, so quietly and smoothly it was as if he was floating. His unusually long arms stretched to either side of the hall, scratching his fingers along the wood and leaving dark red streaks behind.  
  
"Oh shit...." Isamu said, his voice no more than a whisper "the blood's from him..."  
  
"Hey! Hey you!" Eien called "Hey! Can you help us?" The figure stopped momentarily, then carried on along the hall.  
  
"Eien..." Akemi whispered, "I don't think calling to him is such a good idea..." She began to step back, and the figure turned to face them. Its face was contorted horribly, and Akemi screamed. She pulled on Eien's hand and they broke into a run back down the corridor dragging Isamu after them. They turned the other corner and sprinted to a door at the end of it. Akemi wrenched it open and threw herself through it out onto a wooden walkway. She fell to the floor, banging her knees painfully. Eien came through and stumbled over her, falling into the wall followed by a rather petrified Isamu.  
  
"What the fuck was that?!" he screamed. Eien picked himself up and offered a hand to Akemi, pulling her up after himself.  
  
"I don't know," he answered Isamu "but I think we should find the others and get the hell out of here". 


	2. Chapter 2

Kaii turned and bumped into a low shelf. He swore as the pain shot up his leg. He called Rika again, shivering at how eerie his voice sounded as it echoed around the room. Reijiro stepped out from behind one of the kimono stands and shrugged.  
  
"She's not here..." he said.  
  
"Oh Jesus....", Kaii said, rubbing his calf in an attempt to stop the throbbing "Where the hell could she have gone then? She was there when we came through the last room". Reijiro shook his head mournfully.  
  
"I don't know. If anything's happened to her, my 'rents are gonna kill me. Oh shit, you don't think..."  
  
"No", Kaii interrupted him "I'm sure she's fine, probably just lost us in that room or something". Reijiro nodded, Kaii could tell by his eyes that he had gone beyond panic now, and he didn't blame him. His twin sister was lost somewhere in a huge, strange mansion. The twins, although they fought like cat and mouse when they didn't agree, were incredibly close. Kaii knew how much it would have hurt Reijiro if anything had happened to her.  
  
"Come on" he said, motioning for Reijiro to follow him "we have to go back through there anyway, there's no other doors here, she might still be there." Reijiro nodded and pushed back against the wall he was leaning on to stand upright. He didn't get far. The section of wall he had been leaning on swung back and opened up, revealing a hidden doorway. Reijiro yelped and grabbed Kaii's arm for support, but pulled him through the doorway too. They crashed onto the tatami mats in the room beyond, and the 'door' shut itself again. Kaii got up from on top of Reijiro and pushed the panel. It was stuck fast and wouldn't swing open again. He turned back to Reijiro, who was writing on the mats in pain from having Kaii's elbow jammed into his groin. He had gone as pale as sheet of new paper and was groaning something about feeling like he was going to throw up.  
  
"Are you okay?" Kaii asked him, kneeling next to him and brushing his hair from his face.  
  
"Yeah..." Reijiro choked out "just give me a minute or seven..." Kaii smiled, lent down and kissed Reijiro softly on the cheek.  
  
"Good," he said.  
  
"I told her, by the way," Reijiro said, "Rika I mean, she wasn't bothered"  
  
"I told you she wouldn't be."  
  
"Yeah, but it's not everyday you find out your twin brother is bi and is going out with a guy who you've known since you were in nursery school." Kaii laughed quietly.  
  
"What did she say then?"  
  
"She said she knew about you, she said your too style conscious to be straight. She's not bothered about my sexual orientation, just as long as I'm happy and I don't steal all the good looking guys." Kaii smiled again.  
  
"She's a typical woman," he said "they can pick up a gay guys vibes before he's even said hi to them. Christ I hope she's okay."  
  
"Me too", Reijiro said, sitting up and wincing slightly.  
  
Kaii stood up and helped him to his feet. Reijiro looked around the room they were in and stepped back. The walls of the room were lined with hundreds of porcelain Japanese dolls in traditional dress kimonos of hundreds of different colours and styles for every season. They all had the same face and long black cotton for hair. They stared at them, blank and expressionless, their glass eyes just staring like they were watching the two boys.  
  
"Shit," Reijiro murmured, "I hate dolls." Kaii stepped up to the closest shelf and looked closely at one of the dolls. I sat, looking back at him with those horrible eyes.  
  
"They look.... alive" he said softly. He reached out to the doll, and it lurched forward at him. He screamed, jumping back into Reijiro who screamed too. He looked at the shelf, where the dolls body still sat, minus its porcelain head, which had rolled beneath a cabinet. He felt Reijiro's hand close around his and pull him back.  
  
"Let's go, now!" Reijiro said. Kaii nodded his approval and they ran to the door at the other side of the room, through it and out into a garden with a huge cherry tree in the centre and what appeared to be a gravestone, roped off under the tree.  
  
They walked slowly and cautiously along the creaky walkway to a small set of steps that led into the garden itself. There was yet another door at the bottom of the garden beyond the tree, and one at the end of the walkway. Realising that they had to choose one of the doors, and they didn't feel like going back inside the building right now anyway, they chose the one in the garden, knowing it probably led deeper into the mansions grounds. They went down the rickety steps hand-in-hand and past the cherry tree, which looked, although very old, still quite healthy. The gate creaked open when Kaii pushed it and led out into another part of the garden. A huge waterwheel was turning, squeaking as it did so. The sounds of the squeaking mixed with the wood slapping the water made Kaii even more nervous, and he huddled closer to Reijiro. This part of the garden was small, but they couldn't see beyond the first garden lantern. A thick fog had fallen and was shrouding the grounds in its grey cloak. They stepped forward to get a better look around. There didn't appear to be much here. A little burial mound stood at the end of a narrow wooden jetty that stuck out over the stream that cut through the garden, but neither of the pair felt brave enough to try the jetty for fear that it was unstable.  
  
Kaii turned back to the gate they had come through, and gasped, stepping back into Reijiro and making him yelp. By the gate, a figure was turning away from them as though it had been watching. Reijiro recognised it at once.  
  
"Rika!" he called "Rika wait! We're here Rika!" Rika took no notice to her brother's shouts, and disappeared into the fog. Rejiro stood in disbelief that his sister had totally ignored him.  
  
"Let's go after her!" Kaii said as he pulled Reijiro towards the gate. The went through, and saw Rika going through the door on the walkway that they had given the miss before. They sprinted along the garden path and to the door. It opened into another hall with a mirror, a huge mirror like the one in the first hallway. In it, Rika's reflection wandered down the corridor and around the corner. Kaii called her, but once again she appeared not to hear. They followed her and through a doorway into a room with old fish tanks set into the floor. At one time, the tanks probably held a multitude of fish, but now, the scummy green water was still and empty. Wooden planks ran over the tops of the stone tanks to act as walkways over them. There was only one other door, at the other side, over the tanks. Reijiro stepped cautiously onto the first plank and found it stable enough to walk on. Kaii followed him, and the crossed together. Kaii tried the door at the end, and it swung open to the outside again, onto a dirt path.  
  
They made their way down the path, coming out into another section of the grounds. A stone well stood there, covered with a slab of grey stone that looked to heavy to move. They followed it through to another gate, at which point Kaii groaned.  
  
"Bloody gates and doors...." He said, "It's no wonder she got lost." Reijiro pushed on the gate, and it creaked and groaned on its hinges. It took them both to open it far enough to squeeze through, and it led them out onto another path, leading up too a building on top of a small hill. It looked from here, like a temple of worship. Kaii led the way along the path and up the stone steps to the doors of the building. They opened with less trouble than the gate, and they saw that it was a temple inside, with what looked like an alter in the centre surrounded by small Buddha statues. Outside, the rain had started again. It drummed on the roof, and was coming in above them, splashing on the floor creating puddles all around the temple. Kaii sat down on the floorboards.  
  
"Maybe we should stay here until it dies of a bit, what do you think?" he asked Reijiro.  
  
"I agree, but I'm worried about Rika. She has to have come in here, there was no where else to go!"  
  
"We must have missed a door or something," Kaii said. He leaned against the altar and Reijiro sat down beside him.  
  
He lent his head on Reijiro's shoulder and shivered.  
  
"We need to find Rika and the others, then get the hell out of this godforsaken place," Reijiro said.  
  
"I know" Kaii murmured, "I think we should move from here, the water's coming in and it's just splashed down my back." He stood up and pulled his shirt off to wring the water out of it. He stopped, and stood frozen with the shirt in his hands.  
  
"Kaii? Kaii what's wrong?" Reijiro asked. Kaii didn't move. Reijiro stood up, put his hand on Kaii's shoulder and looked at the shirt he was holding. The purple material was wet just near the shoulder seam, but the liquid that stained it was thick and dark.  
  
"Oh God...." He said, then looked at Kaii's back. There were no cuts or scratches in the skin. Kaii turned to face him, his eyes wide and scared. They looked up at the ceiling together.  
  
"Ri...." Reijiro started, getting cut off as the body fell from where it had been suspended and crashed on the floor in a crumpled heap. Reijiro screamed and dropped to the floor, his legs unable to hold him up. Kaii stood frozen, staring at the body of Rika lying on the floor. Her wrists, ankles and neck were bound with rope so tight that they had cut into the skin, making her bleed. She stared up at them, her eyes glazed and her whole expression one of utter terror. Kaii dropped next to Reijiro who was shaking uncontrollably, holding his head in his hands.  
  
"Rika..." he said, over and over "Rika.... Rika..."  
  
Kaii put his arm around Reijiro's shoulders and pulled him into a comforting hug. He started to cry, his face buried against Kaii's bare chest. Kaii felt the tears well up also, and the boys sat and sobbed in each other's arms while the storm raged on outside. 


	3. Chapter 3

Akemi had another sneezing fit the minute she entered the storeroom. The dust in here seemed thicker than it had around the rest of the mansion, and it shifted around the floor in little balls as they moved. After the encounter with the apparition in the hallway, none of them was feeling particularly like wandering the mansion anymore, and at the moment it seemed within their best interests to stay where they were and think things through.  
  
"What do you think it was?" Akemi said. Eien shrugged and Isamu shook his head.  
  
"If I didn't know better, I'd have said it was a..."  
  
"Don't say it" Eien interrupted him "We're freaked out enough as it is, let's not go making it any worse." Isamu nodded.  
  
"I don't want to seem weird," Akemi said, "but I can't help but wonder if that's what that newspaper article was talking about, the one about the family that moved away I mean." Eien nodded.  
  
"Could be," he said, thinking it over "but I still don't get it. Ghosts don't exist right? I mean there's no proof of life after death and I wont believe in them until proven otherwise."  
  
"What was that then?! You tell me what that... that THING back there was!!! If that's not a ghost then I don't know what is!!!" Isamu shouted, shaking with nerves.  
  
"There's no proof it was a ghost Isamu," Eien said, trying to remain calm but unable to hide the shake in his voice "It could have been a trick of the light, shadows, anything!"  
  
"Oh! Well, call me a freak but I think that's highly unlikely Eien. It looked solid for a start, it left streaks of blood on the walls, it floated, it chased us, do you want more proof??"  
  
"Yes please! More proof would be great! In fact, why don't you go back out there and get your Casper friend to come back here and show us some of his ghostly magic?"  
  
"Hell no! You go back out there! I'm not going anywhere!"  
  
"Will you two SHUT UP?!" The boys stopped arguing and turned to look at Akemi. She was stood shaking, her hands clenched into fists at her sides and snarling.  
  
"Arguing is not going to get us anywhere!" she shouted "whether it was a ghost or not isn't important, what IS important however is that our friends are somewhere in this place with that thing! We need to find them and get out!" The boys stood in silence, looking guiltily at the floor.  
  
"She's right" Isamu said "sorry man."  
  
"Yeah, I'm sorry too" Eien said. They hugged quickly in apology and turned back to Akemi.  
  
She was opening the storeroom door and looking down the hall, searching for the man. She saw nothing and beckoned them to follow her. They stepped out and wasted no time in sprinting down the hall to the door that the ghost had stopped them getting too last time. They went through it, into a playroom. Two small kimono hung on the wall; they looked about the size for an eight-year-old girl. They were faded with age. Toys and dolls littered the floor and scrolls depicting children playing hung alongside the kimono. The room suddenly went very cold. Akemi turned and saw a little girl in a white kimono stood by a small door in the corner, just tall enough to fit her through. Her long, black hair hung down her back, her eyes out of sight behind the fringe.  
  
"That's her!" Isamu whispered, "That's the girl I saw before! I told you I saw her!" The girl said nothing; she just stood by the door, looking up at them.  
  
"Hey there," Akemi said, putting on her best I-love-kids voice, "do you live here? Where are your Mum and Dad?" The girl pointed at the small door.  
  
"Through there?" Akemi asked. Again, the girl said nothing. She just carried on pointing at the door, not moving or speaking. Then, she vanished.  
  
Akemi let out a short, startled "Oh!" and turned back to Eien and Isamu.  
  
"Please tell me you saw her too," she said. Eien's jaw had dropped, and he nodded. Isamu just stared at the door, looking as bewildered as Akemi felt.  
  
"Through there?" he said.  
  
"Through there," Akemi repeated. She stooped low and pushed on the door. It opened, and she ducked through it. Isamu and Eien followed her. It led to a narrow, dark, dusty staircase. Spider webs stringed their way across it and the dust irritated Akemi's allergy again. It looked as though it led up to the attic space. Eien went up first, with Akemi clinging onto his hand. Isamu followed behind them, shining his flashlight up towards the top of the staircase. Each step creaked precariously and the rotted wood of the banister crumbled away in their hands. They edged up the stairs in single file, ears alert for any noises, though there were non- besides the groaning of the wood beneath their feet. Another small door stood at the top, Eien looked back down to Akemi and Isamu for confirmation that he should open it. They both nodded.  
  
"Do you think the kids used to use these doors?" Akemi asked "as a kind of secret passage way around the mansion?"  
  
"Could be" Eien said, brushing dust off his shoulder "they're too small for an adult to fit through comfortable without bending down."  
  
"Why would kids want a secret passage around here? Why not just use the halls like everyone else?" Isamu said. Akemi giggled.  
  
"Don't you remember, Isamu? When we were kids we were always finding secret ways around Rika's grandmother's house, playing at being explorers and adventurers. It's just what kids do."  
  
Isamu smiled at the memory. He could remember getting lost in the attic when he was six and thinking that monsters were coming to get him, because Reijiro, who was a year older than Isamu was, had told him that the attic was where Grandma Saitou kept them locked away so they didn't come and get them when they played in the garden. He had hid in an old wardrobe until Rika and Akemi came to find him, and fallen asleep on a pile of musty smelling old sheets.  
  
Eien pulled the little door open enough to look through the crack, and then pulled it further to let Akemi and Isamu see. They where on what seemed to be a network of rafters, above a room lit with candles. Eien frowned, knowing that no candles should have been lit, since nobody lived here, and yet there they where, flickering away as though nothing was out of the ordinary. It was lucky the room was lit, because the bulb in Isamu's flashlight flickered once then died out all together. He swore, and shoved it angrily back into his pocket. Akemi looked around, trying to find a way out of the room.  
  
"Look!" she squeaked, pointing across the room "There! That girl!" Across the rafters, the girl stood, pointing once again to a miniature door and looking pointedly at them.  
  
"Wait! Akemi shouted. Without thinking, she pushed past Eien and started to run along the first rafter towards the girl. The girl looked up. Her lips moved and Akemi stopped dead in her tracks. The girl had vanished once again. Akemi started to move along the wooden beam again. She reached another beam and made to step onto it, when her foot slipped and she fell down. She didn't scream until she realised that she was hanging thirty feet up in the air by nothing but her shirtsleeve, which had caught on a nail protruding from the beam.  
  
"Akemi!!" Eien screamed. He began to edge his way across the rafter with Isamu in tow towards where the girl hung. A ripping sound turned his stomach and, throwing caution to the wind, he ran the rest of the way while Isamu gathered himself together, telling himself that now was not a good time to be afraid of heights.  
  
"Eien?! Help me, Eien!" Akemi screeched as her sleeve ripped a little more. Eien reached her and leaned as far over as he could without loosing his balance and falling down himself. She reached her free hand up towards him, grasping for Eien's outstretched hand, her legs flailing as she made every effort to reach him. Eien knelt down carefully on the wood and took hold of her trapped wrist, then her free hand. With nothing to put her feet against, pushing herself up was proving a hard task for Akemi. Her feet kicked out wildly, and she suddenly became very aware that any one below (if there had been anyone there) would have been able to see up her skirt.  
  
"Oh God..." Eien grunted as her struggled to keep hold of Akemi. She was only small, but she suddenly felt very heavy. He looked down into her terrified eyes, pleading with himself not to let go. Akemi started to slip out of his grasp, she was crying now and panicking more than before. Eien could feel his strength giving in on him. As he felt he wouldn't be able to hold on, Isamu came cautiously up behind him, apparently over his fear. He reached down to Akemi and, working together, they pulled the petrified girl up onto the beam.  
  
Eien put his arms around her, comforting her. She trembled against him, sobbing.  
  
"I can't believe how stupid I am!" she wailed, "How could I go and do something that careless!"  
  
"Shhh..." Eien soothed "you're okay, that's the important thing." He let go of her, and she wiped away her tears and smiled weakly.  
  
"Thanks guys", she said.  
  
"Anytime", Isamu said, "how about we move? It's not really safe up here." Eien nodded and looked to Akemi to make sure she was okay. She smiled and nodded. They crossed the rafters with Isamu in front, while Eien guided Akemi with him. They passed through the door into what had probably been the attic at one point, but now looked like a prison. A wooden cage had been erected in the middle of the room, big enough to fit one person in comfortably. There was a cushion placed under the small, barred window with two poles at either side. Ropes were tied to each pole, and they looked ceremonial, with decorations hanging from them. A small table and bookshelf were the only other furnishings.  
  
"Oh my God..." Isamu whispered, "Who was kept here?"  
  
"Kirie..." "What?" Akemi looked at him.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"Who's Kirie?" he said.  
  
"What are you going on about?" Akemi said, confused.  
  
"You just said 'Kirie', didn't she Eien?"  
  
Eien looked up from the bookshelf he had been inspecting and nodded. They both looked at Akemi.  
  
"I didn't say anything!"  
  
"Oh yes you did!"  
  
"I didn't! Honestly! I've never heard of anyone called Kirie anyway!" she protested, getting more annoyed.  
  
"Is this what you saw?" Eien asked, holding up an old, dusty book. She looked at it. It was bound in black, the pages old and curling. Charcoal ink had been used to write in it, and the name 'Kirie' was written in perfect traditional calligraphy on the first page.  
  
"It must have been" Akemi said, glad that some explanation had been found.  
  
"It looks like a diary," Isamu said, leaning over to get a closer look.  
  
"It is a diary" Eien confirmed, scanning the pages, it looks like she was kept her for...a ritual I think. I'm not sure, the writing is old style, it's a little hard to understand. She says she was here for a while, and that the family master...Oh my God..." Eien trailed off.  
  
"What? The family master what?" Isamu said impatiently. Eien swallowed, his throat had gone dry.  
  
"She was a 'rope shrine maiden', as part of one of the Himuro family rituals to stop a calamity or something...they killed her..."  
  
Akemi put a hand to her mouth, and Isamu felt his blood run cold. Eien set the diary back on the cushion and stood up.  
  
"The Himuro family master went insane..." he said "he went around and killed anyone and everyone who so much as breathed near him..." Akemi shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts of massacre.  
  
"We need to get out," she said, tying her hair up quickly in a bobble she found on her wrist "we need to find the others and go. Phone or no phone, before something..." She stopped. Eien was staring behind her, his dark eyes full of fear. Isamu was trying to draw breath but finding it difficult. She followed their gaze to the huge mirror that was on the wall outside the cage behind her. A face had appeared, followed by a body until the image of a woman in a white kimono was fully formed in the glass. She looked up; her dark hair covered most of her face. She reached forward at them, and her hand protruded from the mirror. Her arm, then her chest and head came through, until she was stood outside the mirror. Shapes of people formed around her, their faces contorted with pain, arms outstretched and writhing in agony. She advanced towards the cage. Akemi stared at her.  
  
"Kirie..." 


	4. Chapter 4

The door closed softly behind him, and Kaii went over to where Reijiro was leaning on the dusty wall. His face looked mostly emotionless, apart from the odd tear that slipped down his cheek. Kaii took him in his arms again.  
  
"There's nothing you could have done" he whispered "she was missing, and we didn't know."  
  
"Her face..." Reijiro murmured, "She looked so scared..." Kaii said nothing; he couldn't think of the words, nothing seemed appropriate to say right now.  
  
"Oh God, what are my parents going to say? They're gonna be so pissed, I may as well just die now, save them murdering me."  
  
"Your parents are going to be glad you're okay" Kaii said "imagine if it was you both, that would hurt them so much more."  
  
"That's not the point!" Reijiro cried "I always told them and Rika that I would look after her no matter what, that I would always be there when she needed me and I would never leave her! Well she needed me then, and I wasn't there!" He broke down and started to cry again. Kaii held him tighter and looked down at him.  
  
"Rei? Look at me, Rei." Reijiro looked up at Kaii. There were only a two people who called him Rei, one had been Rika. He wiped at his eyes and sighed painfully.  
  
"You couldn't have been there" Kaii said softly "she got lost, it's not your fault, or even hers. Rika wouldn't have blamed you for it, and she wouldn't want you to put your life on hold for the sake of her, especially after something like this happened and you need to find your friends and get out of here." Reijiro nodded and pushed his hair out of his eyes.  
  
"Where are we?" he said weakly. Kaii looked around, trying to get his bearings.  
  
"I think we're in the main hall, in the middle of the house somewhere I think" he replied, looking down the long room through the open shoji screen partitions.  
  
"We shouldn't have left her in that temple..." Reijiro mumbled, scratching at the dust on the wall miserably.  
  
"We had too" Kaii said "there was no where to take her." Reijiro hugged himself for warmth. The room had gone cold and his breath was showing in a little grey puff from his mouth. Kaii shivered and turned sharply around. He focused on the back of the room, or as far as he could see in the gloom anyway, and pushed his hair from his face.  
  
"Did you hear that?" Reijiro listened to the silence.  
  
"Hear what?" Kaii shrugged.  
  
"Nothing, I'm hearing things now. Crazy huh?" Reijiro smiled and nodded.  
  
"It's this place" ,he said "it kind of screws with your mind."  
  
"Yeah, but 'm so sure I heard something, like someone walking round..."  
  
"Kaii? Don't talk like that, you're scaring me."  
  
"No, I know I heard something. I'm going to have a look okay?"  
  
Reijiro reached out and grabbed Kaii's arm.  
  
"Don't. Rika was on her own and she..." he trailed off, and wiped at his eyes again, "I don't want to loose you too!"  
  
Kaii sighed and looked down the hall again.  
  
"We'll both go" he said "it's probably safer, and I don't really feel like being alone in here myself. Come on."  
  
Reijiro reluctantly stood up straight and started to lead the way slowly down the hall. They passed through the first open partition screen, and it rolled shut behind them of it's own accord. Kaii jumped when it smacked against the wood. Reijiro pulled at the screens, trying to wrench them open, but got no where. They were stuck.  
  
"Marvelous..." he muttered under his breath. There was one door out of the hall, right down at the end of it. They started towards it, when Kaii stopped suddenly. He backed away from the closed screens, his eyes never looking away. The paper screens looked like they were shimmering, and a human figure was slowly taking form behind them. Someone, his face hidden by a demonic mask, stepped through the paper. They stopped and lifted their arm, which was percularily translucent, revealing a katana, stained with blood. The face looked right at them, and Kaii screamed before grabbing Reijiro's hand and running with him through the open screens to the end of the hall. The screens slammed shut as they passed through, but the demonic figure kept following them. The last screen was stuck shut, and rather then try and open it, the boys began to tear their way through it. Reijiro got through first and turned back to help Kaii through.  
  
"He's coming! Rei help me!!"  
  
"I'm trying! What are you stuck on?!" Kaii looked back and screamed again. The ghost had hold of his hood on his top and was pulling him back. Reijiro looked through and saw the ghost raise the katana above its head. The pupils of Kaii's eyes had shrunk to pinpoint dots and his skin had gone pale like milk.  
  
"Kaii, come on!! Pull him off!!" Kaii reached back to the katana's handle in a vain attempt to stop the ghost. Reijiro closed his eyes. He heard a sound, like someone cutting the air, then a dull thud. He felt Kaii's hand go limp in his own and dared a look through the screen.  
  
The ghost was looking at something on the floor. Reijiro followed it's gaze.  
  
"KAII!!!!!!!!" The other boy as lying on the tatami mats, grasping at the air weakly. Blood was gushing from a deep cut in his back. He looked up at Reijiro.  
  
"I...I love you...Rei...." he choked out. Kaii collapsed onto the mats and lay still. Reijiro stared blankly at him.  
  
"Kaii? Kaii?! Baby come on, get up!!" Kaii didn't move. His hair was matted with blood and his top torn up the back by the katana. His blood soaked into the tatami beneath him.  
  
"Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!" Reijiro screamed at the ghost, tears falling down his cheeks.  
  
"How could you?! Not Kaii..." The ghost looked up directly at Reijiro through the hole in the screen. Reijiro's expression hardened.  
  
"Yeah" he growled,  
  
"Come and get me you bastard." 


	5. Chapter 5

Screams echoed down the narrow hallway as they fled the ghost. Akemi looked back, seeing Kirie materialise in front of her from the other side of the wooden door. Eien wrenched the door at the hallways end open and stumbled through to the top of a short staircase. They clattered down them, falling over each other in desperation to outrun the woman behind them. Isamu ended up in front, leading them haphazardly out into the garden again. He slammed the door shut behind Akemi as she came through, then put is ear to the wood and listened intensely. The silence on the other side suggested that their pursuer had given up on the chase. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief.  
  
"Are you guys okay?" he asked Eien and Akemi, who were both obviously shaken. Akemi nodded. Eien held his arm gingerly, having caught it in the rush. It was bleeding quite heavily from a gash near his elbow, so Akemi, ever the motherly type in a small crisis, used her initiative and hair band to cover the wound.  
  
"Thanks..." Eien said, smiling gently.  
  
"Don't mention it..." she replied, blushing slightly. Isamu clocked the small building at the gardens opposite end and pointed it out. They made their way over to it, and after some time and several bashings of brute force, managed to break the doors open. A structure that looked somewhat like an altar stood at the back, and the floor in the middle was non-existent. Instead, a gaping hole grinned up at them, with nothing but blackness beyond. A metal ladder was fixed into the stone side of the hole, rusting miserably away but still looking strong enough to actually climb down. The next course of action needed no discussion; the hole looked much more inviting than the prospect of being in the mansion with that woman and whoever or whatever else was there. Being the lightest in the group, Akemi went first. She lowered her legs into the blackness and cautiously onto the ladder rung. She put her full weight on slowly, testing its strength, then, satisfied it wasn't going to give way on her, she gripped a higher rung in her hands and began to climb down. Isamu followed her, then Eien.  
  
The climb seemed to last for hours, but at last, Akemi's feet found solid ground and she stepped off the last rung onto the hard concrete. The room was dimly lit with touches on the walls that cast an eerie flicker on the walls. Isamu stepped down behind her and moved into the room a little more. Eien stepped up behind Akemi and gently took hold of her cold hand. Isamu took one of the torches from the wall and moved around the room with it. The flames golden light illuminated the stone walls, showing the drips of moisture and the worn away cracks...and the mummified figure set in a crevice in the wall.  
  
"Shit!!" Isamu cried, jumping back and dropping the torch in fright. Eien picked the torch up and shone it over the blank skull. The empty eye sockets glared at them lifelessly, and the skill grinned menacingly. It still had hair, long and black, though ragged now though it had once probably been gorgeous. The mummified body was bound tightly, and surrounded by ceremonial cords. It just sat in the alcove behind two open sheer curtains. Akemi drew in a sharp breath, making the boys jump. She whispered an apology then pointed to a door set into the stone. Eien pulled it open with some difficulty, revealing a stone bridge over a deep, dark chasm. The bottom wasn't in sight, and the bridge looked none to inviting either. Akemi stepped onto it and walked slowly along it a little way. Satisfied it wasn't going to collapse any time soon, she beckoned the boys forwards. Eien followed her first, then had to practically drag Isamu after him. The stone door behind them closed by itself. There was no sign of Kirie now. Akemi led the way steadily over the bridge and they all shared relief when they reached the other side. The doors here opened easily into another underground corridor. Akemi made to step trough, when Eien pulled her back.  
  
"No..." he said softy "something doesn't feel right..."  
  
They looked down the dimly lit tunnel. Two shapes took form before them, materialising out of nowhere. The grey shapes advanced slowly, twisting around each other. Faces became clear in them and they separated again. They hovered for a moment before gliding eerily towards the trio. Eien pulled Akemi back and crashed into Isamu as he did so, knocking all three of them to the stone floor. The narrowness of the bridge meant they had nowhere to crawl off too in hope of escape. Isamu did his best to back up to try and get away, but almost fell over the edge. The ghosts made a beeline for him, and he screamed as one flew through him as though he wasn't there. His face went unnaturally pale.  
  
"Isamu!" Akemi cried, scrambling over to him. His eyes were half closed and his lips turning blue. Akemi realised he couldn't breathe. The apparitions had vanished, but it was clear that they had done something terrible to him. He choked as he tried to take a breath in. His eyes were full of panic. Eien held onto his wrist, his pulse was fading.  
  
"Isamu no..." he gasped. His friends' hand went limp in his and his eyes rolled back into his head. Akemi let out a cry of anguish. Eien pulled her close to himself and she burst into tears, sobbing against his chest. Eien looked down at her and wiped away the tears.  
  
"Akemi, we have to find the others and get out of here", he said. She looked up at him, then back to Isamu's body on the stone. She let out a scream of rage and grief then fell against Eien again. He felt a tear slide down his cheek and it broke on the floor. Akemi wiped it away as he had done for her then quickly kissed him on the cheek.  
  
"Let's go..." she said. 


End file.
